О двойной обусловленности перевода

Abstract

The point of departure is the hypothesis of the fundamental difference in viewing translation by the translator and by the target language reader: the former focuses on the original and a search for equivalents, whereas the latter has no contact either with the original or the process of translation. It is interesting that without contact with the original, the recipient of translation nevertheless has an illusion of accessing that original. Looking at translation as a linguistically secondary text largely determines the translator’s activity – but not the reception of the final product by the reader. In conclusion, one can hypothesize that translation is doubly conditioned: by the original text and by its future communicative context. In each, a textual point of reference can be determined: the original text and parallel texts, respectively. The translation’s secondariness is thus two-dimensional. It follows that translation, viewed above all as a linguistically secondary text (being based on an original), nevertheless functions independently of this feature. The tension between these two properties of translation determines its status as a message of a peculiar type. It is mainly this assumption that reveals the inadequacy of grounding the efficiency of translations in the notion of equivalence.